Mike Trumpy, Northwestern Wildcats football, No. 32

Mike Trumpy! One of my faves, actually, and although Venric Mark's the man at running back, the Trumpster's already shown his ability to Trump his way through defenses and made his mark on Northwestern football. I'll say this again later, but you can't ask for much more out of a backup RB than Trumpy provides, so get to appreciating him.

Here, it's a post about Mike Trumpy! Only 32 days, everybody!

Origin myth

Trumpy hails from Wheaton, where he went to Wheaton North. (Also, have y'all noticed the absurd amount of these I start with "XX hails from XX?" I'm sorry about that.) He did well there! He ran for 1,664 yards and and 19 touchdowns as a junior, earning team MVP honors. However, a hamstring injury hampered ham ham ham ham ham ham ham what were we talking about? Oh yeah, a hamstring injury hampered him his senior year, and he didn't have the same pop. He still ended up as a three-star prospect, ranked No. 70 amongst running backs in the class of 2009 by 247's composite. He chose Northwestern over some impressive SMRT PEOPLE offers in Stanford and Vanderbilt, picking the Wildcats the April before his senior season. Here's your video of Trumpy's highlights, made by GameTimePros, which occasionally makes super-epic highlight videos of Northwestern players and WATCH IT WATCH IT WATCH IT:

At Northwestern

Trumpy has shown promise but injuries derailed his career, and eventually, he ended up getting passed over. He redshirted his freshman year, and didn't seem particularly important to start his redshirt year. But with Arby Fields' struggles, Adonis still a true freshman, and Jacob Schmidt a walk-on-turned-actual-player, Trumpy began to carry the load. He cemented his status as an important player with a 110-yard game against Indiana, and then had 129 yards against Illinois at Wrigley Field, but he hurt his wrist against Wrigley and his year was over. He ended up leading the team with 530 yards rushing. The apparent starting running back as a sophomore, he had 85 yards rushing in the season-opener against Boston College, but tore his ACL in the first Big Ten game of the season against Illinois and ended his year. With NU realizing the depth issues at the position, they swapped in Venric Mark to play running back, and although Trumpy had 76 carries for 349 yards rushing, he was a backup.

Career highlights

Trumpy's had more important plays -- a touchdown to seal the game against Boston College, for example -- but the career highlight has to be Trumpy's 80-yard touchdown at Wrigley Field against Illinois. The Wildcats trailed 21-7, and Derek Dimke missed a chip shot field goal that could have made it a three-possession game. That gave NU the ball at the 20-yard-line.

Evan Watkins gave the ball to Trumpy on a pretty simple read option play. But there was a huge hole opened up on the left side by Al Netter and Brian Mulroe, which would've been good for like five or six yards. But Demetrius Fields came to the middle of the field and walloped safety Trulon Henry as he flowed to the play, and cornerback Tavon Wilson overcommitted in following Fields as if he was running a crossing route.

And the gates were open for Trumpy. He galloped the length of the field for the score, showing off speed I'm not sure many of us knew he had.

Anagram of choice

Discovering the Wildcats' true inner selves through spelling

Mike Trumpy, anagrammed, is

Kite my rump

I don't know about this acronym but please don't fly your wind-carried toys into my butt. (also considered: "I perk tummy," which is incentivizing fat people, and "I kept rummy," which is the story of somebody passionate about card games.)

Relevant musical selection

"The Humpty Dance," Digital Underground

THE TRUMPY DANCE IS YOUR CHANCE TO DO THE TRUMP / aww aww do me baby / DO THE TRUMPY TRUMP / uh-huh / DO THE TRUMPY TRUMP

MY NAME IS TRUMPY / PRONOUNCED WITH AN UMPY

How he can help

Venric Mark's the star, obviously, but as much as you want a lightning quick guy taking every carry, you don't necessarily want a 5'8, 175-pound guy taking every carry. Trumpy's got bulk, he's shown his speed, and he's shown his relevance in the rare times he's not injured. I'm not sure you could ask for much more out of a backup running back. Spelling Mark is more important than the job description sounds here.

Depth chart projection

Trumpy will be Northwestern's backup RB. That's important, tho.